New ideas face an uphill battle not only because of legitimate concerns, but also because of humanity’s tendency to be uncomfortable with change – a phenomenon known as status quo bias.

Higher education financing is no exception, as illustrated by John Villasenor’s op-ed defending the idea that all majors should be charged the same tuition (Florida recently proposed charging different tuContinue Reading »

Changing standards. Fifth-graders in Pittsburgh Public Schools are delving into sixth-grade math topics, as the district makes the transition to Common Core State Standards. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

The “new” liberal arts. A call for the liberal arts to “show some spine and create a response” to the critics who say a degree in “soft studies,” like humanities and social sciences, has no Continue Reading »

A few weeks ago I ended up in a random hotel bar conversation with someone who happened to manage the endowment for a liberal arts college. Both the amount of money involved (hundreds of millions of dollars) and the percentage of the college’s annual operating budget that depended on endowment earnings (well into the double digits) were substantial. I asked the person how they dealt with Continue Reading »